Got Goals!?

So, around 5:00 or 5:15 this morning you heard an obnoxious noise and couldn’t figure out what was going on. Then you remember the noise is your alarm and that this is your first day with Rialto Wellness Boot Camp! After those thoughts of “what was I thinking?” left your head, you got up, got dressed and headed out. You have now become one of those weird people who roll around in the dirt for fun! Was it everything you expected? Were you pushed beyond your comfort zone? For those of you with PM camps, are you excited for your first workout?

You joined boot camp for a reason, right? That reason can usually be translated into a goal. So what are your goals this month? Run with the fast group? 6-pack abs? Lose a size? How about just making it through the month? All of these goals require small steps in order to reach the prize. Take small bites out of these things. Step One: Decide to make it all your sessions this week. Then make a deal with yourself to make it to all week 2 sessions, and so on and so forth. Pretty soon, the month is over and you are running fast or showing off your baggy pants!

This article about setting a fitness goal reminds us that our goals need to be achievable. Setting short term goals like making it to boot camp every day gives us a sense of accomplishment before we reach the end result of losing 10 pounds. The sense of accomplishment you feel with the short term goals makes staying on track to reach the long-term goals easier.

This blog is for you. Tell the world your goals in the comments and we'll help you stay accountable. You can do this...whatever "it" is!

Have you come up with your Halloween costume yet?

Miss Us Yet?

The Rialto Wellness Staff knows how much you must be missing camp this week. So we put together a couple of workouts you can do at home...you can thank us later...

1) I'm So Excited!!

30 - 20 - 10

Vertical Jumps

Xtreme Jacks

Vertical Leg Scissors

Do 30 of each, then 20 of each, then 10. Not enough? Build it back up! Do 10 of each, then 20, then 30.

2) Jump Rope

Grab a rope and see how many skips you can get in a minutes. Take 3/4 of that number and skip that many times each minute for 20 minutes.

So if you can skip 100 times in 1 minute. Then for each minute for 20 minutes, you need to try and skip 75 times. Try to complete each minute as fast as possible and use the remaining seconds as rest.

3) Grind it Out

Push ups on the wall

Wall Jumps

20+1

19+2

18+3

all the way down until 1+20

So start with 20 push ups on the wall and 1 wall jump. Then 19 push ups and 2 wall jumps.

4) Lunge Walk 400 meters (1 loop around a track)

"Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin" - ...Sans Proper Diet!

TIME Magazine recently published a very controversial article on the effects of exercise on weight loss.

The article was called “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin” (to read the article in full: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857-1,00.html)

Not exactly a sweeping promotion for fitness!

Though there were a lot of things within the article that I found misleading or flat out incorrect, the article does bring to light some very important concepts that are critical for the general population to understand:

1.) Exercise WILL make you hungrier

There is no question here. Exercise, especially intensive exercise, ramps up metabolism and our body’s natural response to energy expenditure (calories burnt from activity) is to increase energy consumption (food intake).
However, being hungrier from exercise is not the culprit- choosing the wrong type of food following exercise is!

In other words, if our diets focus on lots of lean protein, healthy fats, and high-fiber fruits and veggies every 2-4 hours, then we will be able to squash our exercise-induced hunger and build muscle and burn fat from exercise like we intend to. These foods are proven to promote optimal health, performance, and body composition.

However, if you are are a carb addict (think lots of refined grains and sugars), exercise will only make you crave more carbs leading to intense feelings of insatiability throughout the day due to unstable blood sugar levels. Make no mistake about it- in this case, exercise will not only cause you to NOT lose weight, but most likely will cause weight gain.

Here’s the line we tell most people who come to us to lose weight for them to understand they key to the success they crave:

“If you want to bulk up, add size, and gain weight, be sure to eat plenty of starches and sugars. But if you want to be lean and muscular, swap the starches and sugars for high fiber fruits and vegetables, with a special emphasis on green veggies.”

It’s really that simple, which brings us to point #2…

2.) Exercise sans proper nutrition WILL NOT cause significant weight loss

Nutrition is without a doubt 80-90+% of the equation when it comes to weight management. Hormones govern fat loss and both exercise and nutrition impact your body’s hormone levels- positively or negatively depending on what type of exercise and diet plan you follow.

However, you can never wipe out poor nutritional habits with exercise- NEVER! In terms of diet, the hormone we must be most concerned about is insulin, a storage hormone that’s released in large amounts when consuming refined starches and sugars.

Not matter how hard you workout, if you are releasing insulin through the day with a high carb diet, you will be helpless to its fat-storing effects.

On the other hand, lean proteins, healthy fats, and high-fiber fruits and veggies do not significantly impact your insulin levels thus allowing you to preferentially burn fat and build muscle in conjunction with the right exercise plan, which brings me to point#3…

3.) Not all exercise is created equal

The aforementioned article failed to distinguish between different forms of exercise. It misleadingly uses the word “exercise” to refer to aerobic activity or any form of exercise of low to moderate intensity.

Well, we already know that aerobic training has zero effect on fat loss over dieting alone- many studies support this.

So this article should not be using aerobics as the marker for “exercise” and it’s impact on weight loss… it’s like taking a dull knife to a gun fight!

Furthermore, we know that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) burns 9x more fat than ordinary exercise (aerobic training) and actually builds lean muscle and elevates metabolism for up to 24-48 post-workout (please reference our most recent blog posts for a ton of interval workouts that fit the bill here)

In conclusion, study after study proves that when it comes to exercise for fat loss:

CARDIO SUCKS AND INTERVALS ROCK!

So this TIME magazine article missed the ball on the big picture here: When it comes to being lean, muscular, and healthy, the key is an integrated and research based diet AND exercise regimen- exercise alone simply doesn’t cut it!


PS- What are your thoughts about this article? Does this hurt or help the weight loss cause? Please share your mind by making a comment to this blog post below, thanks!

Got Goals?

So, around 5:00 or 5:15 this morning you heard an obnoxious noise and couldn’t figure out what was going on. Then you remember the noise is your alarm and that this is your first day with Rialto Wellness Boot Camp! After those thoughts of “what was I thinking?” left your head, you got up, got dressed and headed out to the location of choice. You have now become one of those weird people who roll around in the dirt for fun! Was it everything you expected? Were you pushed beyond your comfort zone? For those of you with Montclair/Lowry & DTC Locations, are you excited for your first workout?

Here at Rialto Wellness we really want you to succeed. But how do you define success? It is different for everyone. Do you measure success by fitting into those “skinny jeans” that we all have? Do you want to run a 5k? Win a 5k?! Improve your PT results? Lose a few pounds? Whatever your goal, Rialto Wellness Boot Camp is a great way to get started or move to the next level.

Have you set a goal for yourself? We want to hear about them! Our instructors are here to help hold you accountable. They hold you accountable for what you eat and for making it to camp. Now they want to help you to attain your goals. Setting a goal and determining how you are going to achieve that goal is an important part of any fitness routine. You have already started working out and have probably heard some success stories from other boot campers. Now it is time to write your success story.

When setting your goals it helps to determine what results you expect. If you want to lose 10 pounds, losing the weight is the end result you are expecting. But it won't happen if you don't do the right things with exercise and nutrition, so you have to break it into actions that support that goal, such as making it to boot camp every day, writing down everything you eat (and not listing wine as "grapes"), and watching your portions. All these little action steps are necessary to get you to that end goal!

The same goes if your goal is to get faster. If you want to decrease your run time by 45 seconds during the month, you should push yourself every time you run, whether it be hills, sprints or just running from point to point. Set a goal of passing someone in front of you every time, or of remaining at the front of the pack. Those little bursts of speed throughout the month will get your body accustomed to the higher level of effort.

This article about setting a fitness goal reminds us that our goals need to be achievable. Setting short term goals like making it to boot camp every day gives us a sense of accomplishment before we reach the end result of losing 10 pounds. The sense of accomplishment you feel with the short term goals makes staying on track to reach the long-term goals easier.

The article also mentions that keeping a record of your goals is important…so instead of keeping it to yourself, blog about your goal!

Good Food / Bad Food?

Now that you have figured out what this whole boot camp thing is all about, it is time to tighten up on your or nutritional habits or diet. But some of you may not know where to start. This is where your instructors and some helpful hints come into play.

We have told you to clean out your kitchen of “bad” foods and go shopping for “good” foods, but what is good and what is bad?

Recently Michael Pollan, a food author, gave a lecture to scientists at the CDC. He shared with them his seven rules for eating and the seven words that sum up those seven rules. He believes that you should “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”

So what does that mean? Well, it means to eat real food – vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fish and meat. And to avoid “edible food-like substances”.

So here are his Seven Rules for Eating:

1) Don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

2) Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can’t pronounce.

3) Stay out of the middle of the supermarket. You should shop the perimeter of the store where you find the fruits, vegetables, and meats.

4) Don’t eat anything that won’t eventually rot. There are exceptions to this rule, as in honey, but avoid things that never go bad…like Twinkies.

5) It is not just what you eat, but how you eat. When you are eating a meal, stop eating before you are completely full. You should be satisfied, not stuffed.

6) Enjoy meals with the people you love. Eat your meals at the dinner table, that is what it is for! Avoid eating meals in front of the TV.

7) Don’t buy food where you buy your gasoline.

Is this all you need to know about how to eat right? Probably not, but it is a good start. You should also remember to eat 4-5 smaller meals through out the day instead of 2-3 large meals. And remember to drink a lot of water.

You can check out the Rialto Nutrition Blog on a daily basis for recipes and tips. Also, for more information on Michael Pollan and his dietary guidelines, read this article.

How Are You Sleeping?

Have you noticed a change in your sleep patterns since you started boot camp? Hopefully it is getting easier to get to bed early to make sure you get the rest you need! If you are not getting enough sleep at night, you may be hurting your chance of achieving performance and/or weight loss goals.

Many studies have been conducted related to sleep and exercise performance. Needless to say, it has been found that if you are not getting an adequate amount of sleep every night, your exercise performance will suffer. Also, with the lack of sleep, your body’s need for rest and recovery will increase and your risk of injury may be higher.

The weight loss (or lack thereof) connection has been proven as well. An article that just came out in the January 2009 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition took a look at sleep and snacking. It was a small study that let the same group sleep for 5.5 hours or 8.5 hours per night, each for two weeks.

When the group was sleeping for 5.5 hours per night, they ate approximately 220 more calories from snacks, particularly during the hours of 7pm to 7am. And a greater percentage of their calories came from carbohydrates when they slept 5.5 hours per night. Looks like getting adequate sleep may help you stick to your eating plan and keep from turning to snacks for an energy boost.

And if that’s not enough to convince you that adequate sleep is important, studies have also shown that sleep deprivation strongly impairs human functioning overall. And depriving your body of sleep causes hormonal changes that mimic the effects of aging. Surely you don’t want to feel/look older!

We know you’re working hard to achieve your goals, so make sure you get enough sleep so you aren’t sabotaging your efforts.

Have you noticed a difference in your performance at boot camp when you don’t get a full nights rest? Have you changed any of your daily routines to allow for more sleep?